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Chapter 6. The Sky 150
concept. Gifts from the Gods were not necessarily “rewards” for good deeds done
or for being on one’s best behavior. To understand the concept, one would do well
to look at how kings treated their retainers. Kings gifted their men for a variety
of reasons. A successful raid, for example, meant a surplus of wealth within a
community which needed to be “shared.” A common kenning, or poetic metaphor,
for a king or war-leader in this circumstance was “gold-hater,” i.e., “someone who
does not value gold except that it makes a good gift to someone else.” Gold was
also gifted to a man for a poem well turned, for a song well sung, for a joke well
played, for a battle well fought, or simply for friendship’s sake. The intertwining of
luck/ power is of greatest importance here. 11
Interaction between lineages, as stated in Chapter 2, is the very foundation of
all relationships in the early Germanic way of thinking, and the interaction between
the lineages of Gods and people was no different. The Gods had long and powerful
lineages which reached far back to the beginning of time and which connected them
to all lands within the World Tree; therefore, They had access to true knowledge.
Mankind, on the other hand, was very limited in its access to knowledge, but because
of its ability to engage in action which could effectively alter the state of the Waters
flowing out of the Well of Urð at any given point in time, it had access to a power, i.e.
¸orlög, which the Gods needed. As a team of sorts, the combination of the lineages of
Gods and of mankind, i.e. of knowledge with action, the entire Tree benefits. This
relationship between deities and mankind is the exact reflection of that between a
king and his retainers, a war-leader and his warriors, or, ideally, a peasant farmer
and his bondsmen. This is also the relationship stressed throughout the Hávamál:
and
“Give your friends gifts– they’re as glad as you are
to wear new clothes and weapons
frequent giving makes friendships last
if the exchange is equal.” (st. 41)
“If you have a friend you feel you can trust
and you want him to treat you well
worldview presented here, "gift-giving" was important because that was one of the ways that
lineages could be crossed or intertwined. Gift-giving by a king to a retainer or by a God to a man
was done out of a "need" on the part of the giver, a "need" whereby the giver is able to participate
in the ørlög of the receiver. Gift-giving, then, is a matter of power/ luck as opposed to the simple
moving of a material object from one person to another.
11 Sturluson, Snorri The Prose Edda, translated by Anthony Faulkes, (Everyman’s Library;
London, UK) 1987, p. 114.